The Hallifordian - 2016-2017

35 Year 7 Spelling Bee Daniel Winders, Mrs Greaves (Head of Year 7) Eddie Rabett, Finley Broekhuizen, Oliver Hume, William Jackson, William Greaves, Johnathan Hayward, Mr Carrington and Paul Louis Howard. How do you spell…? Competition was tight when a selection of Year 7 students were chosen to take part in the annual Year 7 Spelling Bee in March. The Colin Squire Recital Room was packed to its limits with supporters from each House. Mr Carrington and Mrs Butler-Smith acted as judges calling out each word. Each competitor had to re- call the word aloud letter by letter – not an easy task in front of a live audience. The pressure was intense and there was no clear winner until the final round. Ultimately, it was Daniel Winders from Des- borough House who took home the winning prize. However, everyone involved had taken a consid- erable amount of time and effort learning their set spellings so it was beneficial to all! Mr Cunningham Year 12 “Slugs” trip to London On Thursday the 30th of March, ‘The Slugs’ embarked on a trip to London. The original plan was to attend a lecture at Gresham College on ar- tificial intelligence. However, on arriving we were dismayed to be informed that the lecture hall was full. What to do? However, our ever-resourceful Mr Slocock had a plan B. Plan B was to attend a nearby exhibition at the Wellcome Trust in Bloomsbury about the use and history of electricity. The exhibition demon- strated how electricity has been integrated into our everyday lives – our cars, our houses and even in our pockets. It covered everything from how an electric eel is able to transfer current to space technology. Particularly fascinating to me was learning how Lui- gi Galvani and Giovanni Aldini made corpses move with an electric current in the 18th Century. Can you imagine the horrified delight of their students as they saw the dead ‘coming back to life’ as they twitched and writhed with every volt?! The tour took us into the 1960’s where con- sumer electronics such as our microwaves and fridg- es started being produced by the masses. We were each told to read up on a specific subject, one which we would end up having to become an expert on, and once we got to the quirky yet sophisticated res- taurant on Chancery Lane we had to tell those sitting around us what we have learned within the past hour and a half. Aldini and Galvani’s shocking experiments. All in all, the trip was very successful and all those who attended agreed that despite missing the lecture, Plan B was an excellent choice! Luca Bertuzzi, Year 12